IV. Results and Discussion

A. Viewing Japan's History through Sumo

1. Early Sumo (ca 400-700)

According to one legend, the Japanese race was the product of a sumo match-up between two gods called Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata. The record of this bout is written in the Kojiki (712 AD). The story goes that about 2,500 years ago, Takemikazuchi won a sumo bout and hence got control over what became the Japanese nation. The emperor supposedly traces his bloodline to this god. Today, in Shimane prefecture, a shrine marks the place of the first sumo match. It is impossible to know the exact origins of sumo, just as it is difficult to determine when the Japanese nation was actually born. However, the rule is: the older, the better, and sumo, like the Japanese themselves, would like to think of its history as very long and thus, prestigious.

2. Sumo during the Nara Period (710-794)

Sumo as a means of diplomacy probably started during the Nara period, when Empress Kogyoku entertained some nobles from the Paekche court of the Korean Peninsula with sumo bouts. Other written records describe sumo as being performed with court functions such as the crowning of new emperors. Sechie-zumo (worldly, that is, not as religious ritual) was also established around this period, and sumo started to become national with rikishi coming from all over the country to perfrom before the imperial court.

3. Sumo during the Heian Period (794-1185)

The Heian period was the era of the idle nobility, and sumo closely reflects this. This was the time when sumo acquired the term hanamichi (lit. flowered path). One explanation is that rikishi from opposing sides wore hair clips shaped like flowers, and the winner gave his clip to the loser. Another explanation claims that flower petals were actually strewn on the rikishi's path by spectators. Sumo was performed along with poetry reading, musical and dance performances, and other frivolous activities.

4. Sumo during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333)

Just as tranquil and idle as the Heian period was the Kamakura period violent and bloody. Kamakura was the age where most martial arts can concretely trace their origins. In the case of sumo, it was encouraged as a form of military training, where the most important thing was to remain standing because to fall to the ground would mean instant death. This is probably where the concept of butskari-geiko, wherein a rikishi pushes against another again and again to the point of complete exhaustion but has to stand after every fall, originated. To get up and stand after a fall is of utmost importance in sumo, and this could probably be traced to the bushido of the Kamakura era.

The powerful general Minamoto Yoritomo was a sumo fan. Part of his army's military training consisted of sumo demonstrations. This was also the time when Jujitsu developed out of sumo, and a long period after that Judo would develop out of Jujitsu.

Here it must be stressed that sumo was not only for the ruling class. It was also much enjoyed by agrarian commoners.

5. Sumo during the Sengoku Period (1333-1603)

When the country broke down into warring states, sumo more than ever became an important part of the warrior's repertoire. Sumo, along with skilled weapon-handling (now practiced as Kendo, among others), sneaky ninja techniques and other forms of martial arts, reached its height as a means of fighting for one's life. During the Momoyama years, when the fighting was not as heavy, semi-professional sumo emerged. The rikishi during this time traveled around the country doing performances, a precursor to the modern-day jungyo (exhibition tour). The great shogun Oda Nobunaga himself was quite a sumo fan. He would organize tournaments that consisted of rikishi by the hundreds, and this practice was carried on by no other than shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself, another enthusiastic sumo fan.

6. Sumo during the Edo Period (1603-1868)

Unfortunately, the great Tokugawa Ieyasu was not known as a sumo fan, and when street sumo became popular, causing conflicts to break out in the open, he banned sumo in the streets and organized what was called kanjin-zumo, done only for religious purposes and charity. This was also the period when the present Nihon Sumo Kyokai (sumo association) traces its origin. Before Edo, sumo was mainly concentrated in Osaka and Kyoto, but as the influence of Edo (now the present-day Tokyo) rose, so did sumo move to the places of political power. Here, feudal lords sponsored particularly strong rikishi, and this was the time when the kesho-mawashi (ceremonial apron) and banzuke (ranking sheet) came into being. Professional sumo started here, when sumo-beya were organized, the toshiyori (elders' stock-holding) system established, and rules were laid out making the sport much less violent.

7. Sumo during the Meiji Period (1868-1912)

As Japanese society westernized during the Meiji Restoration, so did sumo. But when all Japanese males were ordered to cut off their mage (top knot), only rikishi were allowed to keep them, but in time the sport was viewed as barbaric and uncivilized. Rikishi, without the support of daimyo patrons, found themselves homeless and broke. Like the society undergoing drastic reform from above, the sumo world also had to undergo major reforms or perish. To improve their public image, the rikishi immersed themselves in community service. The sumo assocation itself underwent its own Meiji ishin (lit. reformation). A famous rikishi named Takasago Urago rebelled against the backward and penniless sumo establishment and organized his won kyokai with a group of other reform-minded rikishi. This move was not unlike that of the "young guns" in politics, reformist men who put an end to the shogunate and worked to build a modern, industrial Japan. Half a decade later Takasago emerged as the most powerful figure in the sumo world. The new Sumo Kyokai established a wage system, directors, and ringside judges. In other words they made the sport more modern and professional. One indication of strong Western influence was the 1872 lifting of the complete ban on women spectators. No longer seen as a residue of the feudal era, powerful government officials approved of the sport more and more. Official approval finally came in the form of the Meiji emperor attending a tournament in 1884. Sumo would soon become a nationalistic symbol of Japan.

8. Sumo during World War II (1937-1945)

Many young rikishi were drafted into the army during WW II, and the sumo-beya were not immune to the Tokyo bombings. The Kokugikan was turned into a bomb factory by the imperial army. Like all other sectors of Japanese society, rikishi suffered from food scarcity.

9. Post-war Sumo

The Allied occupying forces in Japan also occupied the Kokugikan. Hall notes that "they installed an ice skating rink and offices for the soldiers" (Hall, p. 15). In 1950, a new Kokugikan was built, and three years later the first live television broadcast ocurred.

B. Sumo History as Japanese History

We probably don't need to make a two-column table to parellel both histories in order to see what a mirror image they are of each other, for it is quite obvious by now that sumo absorbed a lot of modernization and Westernization, just as Japanese society did. However, sumo still stuck to its guns regarding certain cultural practices and traditions. In other words, it became quite adaptive to changes brought about by outside influence, a characteristic that Japanese society is famous for. Still, just like the way Japanese society takes a foreign element and "Japanizes" it, so did sumo adapt Western technology (among others) all the while remaining strictly Japanese.